John Mayall (1933 - 2024)
Room to Move: The Importance of John Mayall
John Mayall was the Art Blakey of British Blues. He was responsible, almost single-handedly, for populating the “British Invasion” of the American music market during the 1960s. John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers, like Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers, were the proving grounds for a generation of notable musicians in their respective genres.
Let’s review.
John McVie (Fleetwood Mac); Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, Derek and the Dominos); John Weider (The Animals, Family); Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac); Jack Bruce (Cream); Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac); Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones); Keef Hartley (Keef Hartley Band); Andy Fraser (Free), Jon Hiseman (The Graham Bond Organization), Dick Heckstall-Smith and Tony Reeves (Colosseum); Jon Mark and Johnny Almond (the Mark-Almond Band); Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor (Canned Heat); Don “Sugarcane” Harris (Little Richard, Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention); jazzmen, Freddy Robinson, Blue Mitchell, Victor Gaskin, Ernie Watts, Red Holloway; Jesse Ed Davis (Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne); Rick Vito (Fleetwood Mac); Ann Patterson (Maiden Voyage); contemporary blues guitarists Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, Greg Rzab (The Black Crowes); and this list goes so deep that even the most dedicated blues geek can’t keep up.
Mayall’s band was always an incubator of talent and that talent funnelled into the British Invasion, that phenomena that pushed America’s nose into her own indigenous music, suppressed by America’s greatest fetish—racism, forcing America to acknowledge and embrace the brilliant art that was her’s all along. America owes a debt of gratitude to the Realm for introducing her to herself.
Mayall has a discography resembling a large, shaggy dog, shaking off mud in the clean living room. There is a lot of it and not all great. But those early ones: Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966); A Hard Road (Decca, 1967); Crusade (Decca, 1967); Bare Wires (Decca, 1968) (all with the Bluesbreakers) remain very fine. I admire his jazz-blues recordings that followed: The Turning Point (Polydor, 1969); Jazz Blues Fusion (Polydor, 1972); and Moving On (Polydor, 1972). Mayall recorded and performed until the very end, concluding a well-lived life at 90. How lucky were the three generations that got to witness him.
“If you want me darlin' / Take me how you can
I'll be circulating / 'cause that's the way I am
You gotta give me / 'cause I can't give the best
Unless I got room to move…”
Thinking of Jack Raines.
Emilia: You are always so kind to me. Thank you for your kind words. Please make another masterful recording like "And If You Fall, You Fall!"
Thank you for this great article. John Mayall was an idol of my late brother Massimo. I didn't realize the influence he had on so many of my favourite musicians.